The Bachelor's Baby

Chapter Two

Chapter Two

Beverly

Torching the fiftieth and last crème brûlée that morning, I looked up as a woman entered the kitchen. “You must be Meagan, here to talk about your upcoming wedding. I’m just finishing an order, I’ll be right with you. Please, take a seat at the table there. I will wash up, then be right there.”

“Um, well, okay.” She took a seat, clasping her hands in front of her and resting them on the table. “It smells amazing in here.”

“Crème brûlée has such an intense aroma when freshly torched.” I loved the scent myself. “They should make a perfume out of it.”

“I agree. But it would leave me feeling hungry all day, I’m afraid.”

“You’re right—it might do that to most women. There’s coffee in the carafe. I filled it up just before I got started with these. Help yourself, Meagan.”

“I…um, well…okay. Thanks.” Picking up the coffee cup in front of her, she filled it up and then held the cup in her hands, inhaling the thick stream of pale white steam. “You are Beverly, right?”

“Yes, I’m Beverly. My business partner, Delaney, is out today. She’s buying fresh veggies from the farmer’s market. Our catering company, Savoureux, is known for using only fresh ingredients. I’ll be helping you with the menus for your big event. You said it was in May of next year, right?” I came and took the seat across from her, then pulled my laptop off the chair next to me and placed it on the table. Looking over her shoulder, I recalled that she had said her fiancé would be attending the meeting with her. “Oh, should I wait for Josh to join you?”

“Who?” she asked, taking a sip of the hot coffee.

“Your fiancé, Josh.” I found it amusing that she had forgotten the man she was to marry in less than a year’s time.

“Oh.” Looking a bit sheepish, she put the coffee cup down before going on, “I’m not Meagan. I didn’t make an appointment. I’m not getting married.”

Confused, I said, “You asked if I was Beverly, so you must have come to see me for some reason.”

“Yes, I did come to see you specifically.” Extending her hand across the table, she said, “I’m Jasmine Winters. I’m an assistant producer on a reality television show that is due to begin filming in two months.”

“So, why do you want to see me? I didn’t sign up for anything like that. I’m not really a fan of reality television.”

“Oh,” she said with a frown. “Well, I am sorry to hear that. See, it took us a while to track you down. We have signed on a man from your past. You do remember dating Theodore Decker when you were in college, right?”

Whoa! Talk about a blast from the past!

“Theo?” I asked. “He’s going to do some reality show?” I had not really thought about the man in a long while. But then again, he was lingering in my mind and heart at all times. It was a strange thing, my feelings for the man.

“Yes.” She wore an enthusiastic expression. “See, he is going to be one of our bachelors.”

“That sounds a lot like you plan on hooking him up with some woman.” I was not interested in being that woman either.

“That’s the plan. I mean, he gets to pick which of the women he wants to marry—if he picks any of them at all. Anyway, the thing is that if he does end up picking one woman to marry, we are going to throw in a plot twist to make things interesting. And you would be that plot twist. You called him Theo, right?”

“Right.”

“Anyway, we would toss you into the picture to mix things up a bit. It’s going to make great television. I can assure you that you’ll have the absolute best time too. The island is like paradise. You will have your own room, of course. And all the food and drinks you want. Anyone would love to be on this show, I can promise you that.”

“Great,” I said with a smirk because there was no way in hell that I was going to be on this stupid show that seemed like it was just about ruining people’s lives. “If anyone would love to be on the show, then it won’t be hard for you to find someone else to get in Theo’s way of finding love.”

“But we want you, Beverly. Randy—that’s my boss—gave explicit directions that I am to get you to agree to be the ex that we bring in for Theodore. I mean, Theo.”

“Well, I am not going to do that.” I was not one to be ramrodded into doing anything. “Let me tell you something about me. Once I put my foot down, I do not move it. The answer is no. I have a lot of work to do, and my real appointment should be showing up any time now.”

“Beverly, I’m sorry I sprang this on you like this. I can give you time to think things over. We haven’t begun filming yet. No one has even been brought to the island. There’s still time to think this over. I mean, do you not want to see Theo again after all these years?”

“No.” I had good reason not to want to see that man again.

“From what my boss said, Theo had nothing but nice things to say about you.”

“Yes, I would think so. We got along very well. To be perfectly honest, he was the love of my life. But that was a very long time ago.”

“Yes, it’s been thirteen years since you last saw each other,” she said. “That’s what Randy said. He found you by looking up the registry of the college you and Theo attended. You were a couple of years behind him. He graduated, leaving you behind. The breakup was amicable, I believe is what Randy was told by Theo.”

“It was, yes. We were young, with bright futures ahead of us. But there was no way to connect those futures. He must be doing amazingly well if you guys invited him to your little television show.”

“He’s a billionaire,” she blurted out.

I was stunned—I had no idea he had become that successful. “Well, good for him! Wow! That is amazing news. And he’s still not married?” I hadn’t seen that coming. The man was sexy, handsome, clever, funny, regal in many ways, and now rich to boot. How could he not be married by now?

“He has never married,” she informed me. “And he has been tight-lipped about the women he has dated.”

“But he told you about me,” I said.

“No, he didn’t tell anyone about you. My boss is amazing at digging up things on people. He said he found some pictures of you guys in old newsletters from the college you two attended. Apparently, you and Theo were active in the college community, even taking starring roles in one of the plays your theater group put on.”

“I was Sandy, and he was Danny in Grease. Those were fun times.”

“I bet they were. You with your blonde hair and deep blue eyes and him with his dark hair and ice-blue eyes must have been a real match made in heaven. That’s the name of the show, by the way—Matches Made in Heaven—a Sloan Brothers production. Have you heard of them?”

I shook my head. I hadn’t heard of much in the reality television world. “Are they big names in that particular genre of entertainment?”

“Like, the biggest. They like to put on the drama. Heavy on the s*x too, if you know what I mean.”

“I get what you’re saying. Theo will be having s*x with many different women.”

Looking a little embarrassed, she said, “Well, who knows, really? It’s not like anyone is made to have s*x. But if it happens, it happens.”

“And your cameras will be right there to capture it, right?” I was not interested in being a part of what I thought of as basically s*******n. “Hope he has fun.”

Sex with Theo had been off-the-charts amazing. He knew how to handle a woman. Well, he knew how to handle me anyway. I couldn’t vouch for any other woman because while I had been in school with him he was only with me, and I was only with him.

My body heated with the memory of our last night together. His hands on my flesh, leaving scorching trails of heated l**t all over my body. His mouth, hot on mine, even hotter on my s*x. He had driven me over the edge that night.

That last time, we did it all night, over and over again. I lost count of the times we brought each other to the most powerful climaxes.

Even now, thirteen years later, I could still smell our combined scents. s*x had filled the air of my tiny dorm room. Sultry, heady, wonderful—I cried when I had to clean that scent away the next morning before my roommate came back.

Drawing in a deep breath to slow my racing heart, my skin tingled, as well as my core. The idea of seeing Theo again—of being intimate with him again—made my heart ache.

“Your cheeks have turned red, Beverly,” Jasmine informed me.

I touched them, feeling the heat that the mere memory of us had caused. “The man used to be raw s****l magic. I hope your viewers are ready for what he’s sure to give them.”

“What we would really like to give them is the heat between you and Theo. I can tell you now that you are radiating s*x yourself. And that’s only from the memory of the man who obviously tooted your horn.”

That heat is a bit too much for television!